Page 37 of As They Are (Strawberry Springs #2)

“Huh?” Colleen interrupted. “I didn’t catch that.”

“Nothing. Just making sure he knows he’s all good.”

“Of course he is! He’s home! What could be better than that?”

“Yeah, Mom.” A soft smile graced Henry’s face. “I’m home.”

He must love her. As he should. Sometimes it was hard to love, and be loved by, those who didn’t understand you.

And some people failed at the whole thing entirely.

I looked in between them, heart panging as I thought of myself. But I shoved it aside. Henry was the important one here. Not me.

Walking to the wall, I eyed all of the pictures. Some were old, possibly of Colleen when she was younger. There were a few wedding pictures and some of a young boy with glasses.

“Please tell me this is Henry,” I said.

“It is,” Colleen replied.

“The wire glasses !” I turned to him. “You were so cute.”

“Mom picked those out,” he said. “They were a product of the time.”

I followed the pictures. They were in order of age, which allowed me to see him grow up. He grew taller and taller, just like I had. I was fascinated with childhood photos, mostly because I had none. Mom didn’t think I was photo worthy. Dad didn’t have enough time to take them.

Eventually, I paused over one where Henry was in a suit. He still had the soft angles of a teenager and was with a shorter girl with blonde hair. She was in a yellow dress and had a carnation. She was beautiful.

“That was his prom,” Colleen explained. “You and Norah were a cute couple.”

I blinked. He’d said he’d been with someone who’d moved on very quickly. Was this her? Was this why I’d heard from people in town that he’d never dated anyone?

Was he hung up on her?

I could see why.

“She lives down the road now,” Colleen mused.

“She’s married,” Henry added. “To Ace. He took this photo.”

“Still think that was weird. I mean, your ex and your best friend? I thought there was some sort of code for that.”

“It was years ago, it’s fine.”

It didn’t sound fine. I turned to Henry, whose shoulders were now tense.

I wanted to know everything, but he made it clear that he didn’t want that from me. Even as friends, he had walls up. I doubted he wanted me to know this.

“Oh well.” I feigned calm, something I was too good at. “He ended up where he was supposed to.”

“He has you,” Colleen said with a smile. “Let me get you two some snacks. Now, I’m sure you know this, but Henry’s favorite is string cheese, but only one particular brand.”

We followed her into the kitchen where she rummaged through the fridge.

“I can eat other things now,” Henry said. “Like vegetables.”

“But only the carrots cut like chips.”

He winced. “The crunch is better. The other ones are too loud.”

“That’s adorable,” I said. “Does Food ‘n’ Things carry that?”

“I asked Dale to order them.”

I was going to soak up every second of this. I was finally getting information on the man who was in all of my thoughts. Colleen brought out the string cheese and Henry wasted no time grabbing one. I did the same.

“Mollie and I tried to make queso from these once by melting them in the microwave. Her mom had to explain that they were two totally different kinds of cheese.”

“You ruined good string cheese in the microwave?” Henry looked at me like I’d stepped on a puppy.

Colleen laughed. “You’ve committed a sin.”

“Oops, sorry,” I said before taking a bite out of the top.

“Wren!” Henry grabbed the cheese from my hand. “You monster!”

“What?”

“That’s not how you eat string cheese. You peel it.” He demonstrated and peeled off one edge.

“Is that why they call it string cheese? I thought you just ate it like regular cheese.”

“How did you— why ?”

I shrugged as I took it from him and ate one of the smaller pieces. “This is way better.”

“He feels very strongly about his cheese,” Colleen said. “He likes you. He even gave it back!”

“I’m debating that choice,” he muttered.

“I’m very sorry that I’m not educated on string cheese. Does that help?”

“Don’t let it happen again.”

“You two are something else! On the show, they made it seem like a fairy-tale romance, but almost too fairy tale. You better watch out for that Jude guy.”

“Trust me, I’m aware.” Henry’s voice was dry.

“That’s not happening,” I assured her. “They’re spinning it in a way I didn’t agree to.”

“Show business,” she muttered with a roll of her eyes. “There’s a reason I hate reality TV.”

“Didn’t you watch Ru Paul’s Drag Race ?” Henry asked.

“That’s not reality TV. That’s art .”

I laughed and ate another part of my string cheese before Colleen led us back to the living room. She pulled out one of the dining room chairs and sat in it, leaving the tiny love seat to the both of us. Since it was so much older, it meant we were practically sitting on top of one another.

Not that I was going to complain. I tucked in my legs and leaned into it, half of my body pressed into Henry. He gave me a glance before wrapping his arm around my shoulders.

My heart skipped a beat.

“Now you two need to tell me every detail of how this happened.” She leaned forward. “Start from the beginning.”

“Well,” I began, “it all started when Henry sent me on a wild-goose chase for irises.”

“Him and those flowers. He loves them!”

“Of course he does,” I said without missing a beat. This was the one thing I did know. “And he was trying to keep me busy, but then we broke into a library, and it all went downhill from there ...”

“These are lifesavers,” Henry said that evening when he took the earplugs out. We were in the tiny guest room, which used to be his old bedroom. She’d gone to bed at nine and left us with a pile of pillows and blankets to use for the night. “I mean, she’s still loud, but it’s tolerable.”

“The reviews on those are great. Apparently, people use them for concerts too.”

“Thank you,” he said. “You were right about them.”

“And right about coming?”

“I’m not so sure about that. Did you have to mention us breaking into the library?”

“Her lecture was hilarious.”

“For you ,” he said, crossing his arms.

“You were just doing your doctorly duty,” I replied, rolling my eyes. “Nothing to it.”

“Still. That and the string cheese has you on thin ice.”

“I shared my chicken tenders with you, though.”

Henry and I had gone out with Colleen. He’d ordered grilled chicken and vegetables, but I saw him eyeing my fried version. Dinner had been fun up until Henry and I once again debated over who would pay.

In the end, I headed to the bathroom and covered our check on the way back.

He wasn’t amused.

“Sharing earned you a few points,” he said. “Sneaking off lost them.”

“You’re just mad that I pulled it off.”

“I am. I’ll remember this for next time.”

Would there even be a next time? I had no idea, but I didn’t need to think too hard about it. I was determined to soak up as much as I could about Henry, and this weekend had already been a gold mine.

I riffled through my bag, grabbing at the T-shirt and shorts I’d brought for sleeping in. “Be right back. Gonna change.”

I headed to the bathroom down the hall. My hair was up in a ponytail, and I tugged out the hair tie.

As it tumbled down around my shoulders, my reflection stared back at me.

I’d worn a flannel and jeans on the way over, but as the heat pressed on, I’d stripped off my outer layer and was now in just a white tank top.

Before I could stop it, my mind wandered. I wondered if the woman—Norah—had dressed up for him. I wondered if he looked at me and thought of her.

Many people looked at me and thought of someone else. It was a curse of mine.

I focused on brushing my teeth. I hated these thoughts. Over the years, I’d gotten good at ignoring them, but ever since Jude had turned me down, they followed me around.

Mom had left wounds. Ones that I wasn’t sure would heal.

Everything reminded me of it these days, and all I wanted to do was be normal.

And now I knew about his ex—the one that he could still have feelings for.

I had a bad habit of comparing myself.

I changed into my pajamas. The large T-shirt had the collar cut out years ago and hung off one shoulder. It had been a work shirt before I made it a nightshirt. The shorts were short, not even coming below the hem of the tee.

When I got back to the room, Henry had changed too and met me at the door. He had on more casual clothes, but they were still far nicer than mine.

“Wren.” His eyes trailed down my body, lingering on my shoulder. “You ... uh.”

“They’re old. Sorry. I don’t do traditional pajamas.” I brushed past him, feeling the way his eyes followed me. But by the time I’d put the clothes for the day in my bag, he had left.

While he was gone, I looked through the blankets. I pulled three and made a tiny makeshift bed on the floor.

Henry was back in mere moments. “You don’t have to do that. We can make the bed work.”

I was smoothing out the area I would lie on while I answered. “Colleen gave us a hundred and one blankets. I’ll be fine down here.”

“There’s barely any room. You have maybe a foot and a half to sleep on.”

I did. This was not going to be a comfortable night. “I can fit.”

“But your ankle.”

“It’s healed. I’ll be fine.”

He blew out a breath. “Wren.”

“Henry.” I still didn’t turn.

“You’ve been messing with the same part of that blanket this whole time. Something’s wrong.”

He was right, and I should have known he would see it right away.

But I still clung to the hope he would let it go.

“Don’t worry about me.”

“I’m going to.”

“Seriously, Henry, you’re tired. Go to?—”

“Wren, look at me.” There was an edge to his voice. One that still made my body feel hot despite the mix of emotions running through me.

I gritted my teeth against everything I felt and turned. Henry had knelt behind me, but when he saw my expression, his eyes went wide.

“Oh, no. Wren, I didn’t mean to—I shouldn’t have gotten firm.”

Something broke through everything—a question. “Why are you apologizing? I’m the one trying to cling to the idea that you’ll let it go, which you never do.”

“I’m pushing you.”